New Zealand Photos

View of Lake Rotorua.

A public park in Rotorua, with steam coming from the ground due to volcanic activity.

Same park, lots of steam. Smelly.

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. Highly recommended.

The steam is most impressive in the morning when the air is still cold.

Tinges of yellow from sulphur.

The Artists' Palette, including many more colours than are visible in the photo. British friend Helen in the foreground. (Helen, if you read this, contact me---I owe you a roll of film!)

A dew covered spider web in Wai-O-Tapu.

Deposits of sulphur.

That guy just dumped some soap shavings into that geyser.

And this is the result. (The soap releases the surface tension; the geyser would erupt naturally about once every day and a half.)

It goes on for several minutes.

We next head down to the little trail visible at the bottom of the image.

The spectacular colours didn't show up in the photo for some reason.

Here there are hints of green and orange, but it still doesn't compare to what it actually looked like.

The Champagne Pool was one of the highlights of Wai-O-Tapu. It's a 60 m wide and 60 m deep spring, filled with carbon dioxide bubbles. The colours are produced by gold, silver, mercury, sulphur, arsenic, thallium, antimony and other minerals.

A bubbling mud pit beside the parking lot.

Another shot of the pit.

A waterfall near the Buried Village.

A small cave at the base of another waterfall.

More running water.

Lake Taupo with a rainbow.

Crossing upstream from the falls, looking downstream.

Close-up of the falls.

Another thermal area.

Preparing to go caving, near Waitomo.

Rapelling into the glow worm cave.

Tubing and kayaking downstream.

The end of the caving trip.

Morning view of Mt. Ngauruhoe, an active volcano, from the hostel. Mt. Tongariro is to the left.

The trailhead, near Mangatepopo Hut, in Tongariro National Park.

Me with John and Paul, two locals who hiked part of the way with me.

South Crater, which is something like a kilometer in diameter. Very windy that day.

Closer look at Ngauruhoe. It is much larger than it looks.

Looking back the way I came, towards a volcano poking above the clouds.

Strange rock formations in a nearby valley.

First of a series of three, from left to right. This shows two craters, one at eye level and one below.

Second of a series of three. Another crater, with a lake in it.

Third of a series of three. Emerald Lakes, and Red Crater to the right.

Ngauruhoe again.

Mt. Ruapehu (I think) at sunset.

Blurry photo of Tongariro and Ngauruhoe at sunset. Beautiful sky.

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